Boundaries
by FrenchieLeigh
Summary: A student teacher at Stohess Academy, Petra Ral has high hopes for her future career. When one of her students puts her in a scandalous position, she finds herself wondering where their boundaries lie and if it's safe to cross them. ONESHOT: Rivetra


**Author's Note**: I received a Student/Teacher AU prompt on tumblr and this is the result~ I hope you all enjoy it!

**Disclaimer**: I do not own any of the official Shingeki no Kyojin/Attack on Titan characters.

**Boundaries**

Seated at her desk grading the latest tests, Petra Ral tapped her toes to the rhythm of the song that had been stuck in her head that entire day. Though technically she was only a student teacher, still finishing up her last year of university, the instructor she had been assigned to work under had unexpectedly gone into labor two weeks prior, leaving Petra to wield the class of high school seniors completely on her own for the remainder of her student teaching.

Because she wasn't the type of woman to shirk at a challenge, Petra had accepted the task head on, and found that being thrown into the fire was most definitely the best way to gain experience. The group of seniors preparing for graduation were a busy bunch, all suffering from the teacher-dreaded _senioritis_ where they resisted authority a bit more than usual, slacked off, and generally treated their studies as something of the past. Still, for all the horror stories she heard in the lounge, her class was remarkably well behaved.

Comparatively, of course.

The weather was warming as indicated by the mint green cardigan draped over the back of her chair and the sleeves of her coral collared blouse that she rolled up on her forearms. She wished the academy's teacher dress code had allowed for open toed shoes (she'd given herself the most adorable pedicure the night before), but alas, she was forced to settle for tiny nude ballet flats with gold buckles across the toes.

Turning to the essay portion of one of the tests, she smiled. "You don't have to do that you know."

From across the room a student shrugged his shoulders, not looking at her, perched on a bookshelf and concentrating on the window he was cleaning. "I don't care."

"We have janitorial staff that get paid to clean, Levi."

Levi Ackerman pursed his lips together, holding the bottle of cleaning solution up to the window and with a bored look, squeezed the trigger, spraying blue liquid into the glass. "Yeah well they suck at their job."

"Your parents must be very happy to have you," she chuckled, "if you enjoy cleaning this much."

"I live with my uncle," he told her absently, "ever since my parents bit it a couple years back."

Petra's face reddened and she covered her mouth at her embarrassing blunder. "I'm so sorry," she breathed, "I-I didn't—"

"I know," he interrupted her, tossing his cleaning cloth onto his shoulder as he scooted across the bookshelf to the next window, "you're new. No one filled you in."

"Still I—"

"It's not like they were ever home anyway," he bit off, "I don't miss them or anything."

The way his mouth turned down and the skin between his eyes crinkled as he spoke suggested otherwise, but Petra wasn't about to deflate the pride of a teenage boy.

With an affectionate shake of her head, she returned her attention to her grading. All of the other students had gone home for the day, but as he had done for the past two weeks, the short boy with a bad attitude remained behind to clean the classroom. Perhaps he had done so beforehand as well, but she had never stayed long enough to notice.

Despite his strange need to clean the entire room at the end of every day (and extra on Monday afternoons due to the dust that may have settled over the weekends), Petra found the companionship comforting. They weren't far apart in age; she was only twenty-two, he had celebrated his eighteenth birthday over the Christmas vacation. Sometimes she would make a small joke and he would look at her with amusement in his eyes and most often he would scold her when she dropped the chalk covered eraser or when her iced tea left rings on the desk.

He finished the windows and moved to the chalkboard where he wiped all of her cute letters and numbers from sight, preparing a bucket of water and a sponge from the sink in the corner.

At her desk, Petra was writing comments on the essay of Auruo Bossard when the ink in her red pen began to fade. She gave the pen a little shake and tried again. Nothing. Pulling her pad of sticky notes towards her, she began to scribble viciously on the paper, desperate to bring the utensil back to life. A hand on hers halted her furious movements, and from behind her, Levi leaned over, placing a new pen on the desk beside the test she was grading.

"Oh," she said softly, "thank you."

He didn't say anything, keeping his hand over hers, his chest dangerously close to her back. With his other hand, he tucked her copper hair behind her ear. He felt her stiffen with discomfort, but he couldn't bring himself to move.

"Levi this is inappropriate."

He gave her hand a small squeeze and leaned forward, his dark hair brushing against her cheek as he rested his forehead on her shoulder. "I don't want to go home," he told her, "there's nothing for me there."

"You don't have to go home," she replied gently, pulling her hand out from his grasp, "but you can't act like this with me."

"Do you like me, Miss Ral?" he asked, not yet lifting his head. He loved her scent. It was like honey and goat's milk, with a hint of something else. Cinnamon? Clove? He didn't care. It was beautiful.

"Of course I like you," she sighed, "I like all of my students."

"But do you like me," he pressed, lifting his head and breathing his words onto her neck, "the way that I like you."

Like a shot, she sat up completely straight. This wasn't happening. How was she supposed to deal with _this_?

"Levi Ackerman," she said sternly, her words calm and crisp, "Though it may not be permanent, I am still your _teacher_. I can't—"

He spun the chair around then, forcing her to face him, and with two palms on the wood of the desktop behind her, leaned over her, blocking her view of anything else but him.

"Don't play games with me," he warned lowly, "_Petra_."

The way her name slipped between his teeth and into the air sent a wave of shivers through her body and she swallowed, staring up at his narrow eyes and furrowed brows. Was he toying with her? Could it be a prank? No. It wasn't any of that. He was being honest and genuine in his own rough and difficult way.

"Levi, I can't."

"You can't?" he asked, "or you don't? There's a difference."

Her heart beat frantically from her position beneath him. There was no way she could have feelings for him. She was (almost) a teacher. A professional. Someone who was giving their life in service to children, to educate them and protect them, to guide them down the path of success.

Then again, at eighteen, Levi Ackerman was no longer a child.

No. _No_. This was ridiculous.

She covered her face with her hands and let out a frustrated groan. "Do you understand what you are asking of me?" she demanded, pushing her small hands against his solid chest in an attempt to ease him back. It didn't work and she wondered just how much force she could use before she crossed the line of self defense into assaulting a student.

"I'll _never_ find a job," she hissed, her honey eyes flashing, "my career will be destroyed before it even begins!"

His hands came to rest on the sides of her face and he stroked her cheeks with his thumbs. "No it won't," he told her, "I won't let that happen."

She sighed again, this time with irritation and he pushed his fingers into her hair. She was beautiful when she was flustered. Leaning forward, he planted a soft kiss on her forehead, closing his eyes when he heard her whimper beneath him. She was terrified for her own sake and while he understood that, he also knew there was a very important card up his sleeve he had yet to play.

His lips moved down to her nose and he rested his forehead against her own for a moment before he lingered at her sweet, gloss coated lips.

"We shouldn't," she whispered, losing her bravado feeling his breath on hers.

"Shouldn't? Or don't want to?"

"If someone sees—"

But he didn't let her protest any further. He closed the distance between them, crushing his mouth against hers, cradling her soft face in his rough and calloused hands. She was every bit as sweet as he'd been imagining her, and he'd been doing quite a bit of imagining since she had stepped foot into the classroom just a few months prior.

He knew she'd been doing the same. While he wasn't particularly good with girls (he was too rude and un-romantic), he wasn't stupid. He watched from the corner of his eye while the cute college girl stared at him when she thought he was reading. He enjoyed calling her over to help him solve a problem he knew the answer to, not making any outward comments when she rested her hand on his shoulder, using her mechanical pencil as a pointer in his textbook. He was the only person in the class she touched, that much he knew for certain.

He'd been watching.

Perhaps it would have been better if he'd just waited the three weeks for her to go back to her university and finish up the semester there, casually run into her and pursue her at a safe time. He _knew_ it would have been better that way. But this past week had been a particularly bad one and he was sick of waiting.

She breathed his name as he pulled away and he smirked inwardly. "That wasn't so bad now, was it?" he asked, teasing her.

And it hadn't been. Not in the slightest. While the professional in her screamed to stand up and leave the room, grading be damned, the young, reckless, and fanciful young woman that made up the rest of her wanted _more_.

He wasn't wrong, no matter how much she protested. The truth was, from the very first time she had swept her eyes over the classroom, there was something about the dark and brooding Levi Ackerman that Petra couldn't shake. She found herself staring more often than she should and wondering what it might have been like sitting in class with him as peers. He rarely spoke to anyone, but to her, he would open up just ever so slightly.

She liked the way he scolded her, sighing and shooting her annoyed glances whenever she did things not exactly to his liking. Perhaps a student shouldn't have had so much power over his teacher, but she found herself making sure she didn't erase too forcefully lest dust fly into the air and settle onto her shoulders.

Though his personality was reclusive and jagged, his voice softened for her, even if his words didn't. That voice, his deep rumbling tone that made so many of the teenage girls shift in their seats while their cheeks flushed, in this moment, belonged entirely to her.

And though she knew it was wrong, when he lowered his head to her collarbone, she accepted it.

He gave her a small nip and she was clay in his hands. He slipped his hands underneath her thighs and with a small grunt, lifted her up and out of the chair, raising his head and tilting his mouth up, silently asking for her returned affection.

Petra wasted no time in giving it. She draped her arms over his shoulders, her small fingers splayed out over the crisp white of his uniform shirt while she kissed him with everything she was. Her legs wrapped around his waist, ankles crossing behind him. Her cellphone slipped from the back pocket of her white dress crops, hitting the tile floor and shattering the screen but she neither noticed nor cared.

Levi kept one hand firmly on her bottom while the other held the back of her neck in a fiercely commanding grip, turning their bodies to face the opposite direction. His tongue begged entrance to her mouth and when she complied, he stepped forward, slamming her back against the chalkboard, keeping her in place with his hips. She let out a devious little cry and he groaned, his breath hot on her jawline as he trailed hard kisses down her body. He reached behind for her wrists, pinning them against the wall and pushing his groin into her own, asserting his dominance over her.

"_I'm so fucking lonely_," he ground out, attacking her pulse with a series of bites before he took the tender skin between his teeth and sucked on it, taking pleasure in the heavy pants she let out in a frantic attempt to keep quiet.

And in that moment, when he bore his soul to her, Petra's heart broke for him.

He'd released her arms, focusing the attention of his hands on the pearl buttons of her pink blouse, desperate for access beneath it.

Petra's fingers found his hair, pulling him away from her skin, as she shoved her hands through the black silk. Using this grip, she tilted his head back, forcing him to look up at her. There was so much darkness in the cobalt gaze she was met with, she wanted to cry. His brows were knit together as they always were, creating wrinkles between them, his frown unable to find a new direction.

"You don't have to be alone," she breathed, honesty reflecting in her honey eyes. She gave him a small half smile as she stroked his hair. He didn't smile. His jaw clenched and his hold on her tightened.

He caught a whiff of her again when she leaned forward, hugging his neck and holding him close, pressing his head into her chest. "You don't have to be alone."

The classroom door opened then and she froze, not daring to look up and see just who it was that invaded their incredibly immoral and illegal actions.

"Levi."

Petra's heart raced. _The headmaster._

Levi didn't release her. He lifted his head, turning to the man and with one simple word and a slow blink, addressed him. "Uncle."

Erwin Smith observed the scene before him with an unsurprised sort of fascination. "Release her, Levi."

He did so, reluctantly, but when her shoes tapped softly against the floor, he remained standing in front of her, making work of buttoning up her blouse. He wouldn't leave her indecent.

Petra didn't know whether to be horrified, terrified, or furious. Perhaps she was all three, but the latter refused to make itself known, so rooted was she where she stood.

"Go home, Levi." Another order.

Levi reached up, giving Petra's hair a quick comb through with his fingers before he left the room without a word, slamming the door behind him.

Petra's mouth had gone dry. Her shoulders trembled and she cursed herself. The _one_ time in her entire life she had ever broken the rules, ever done _anything_ she wasn't supposed to do, she had chosen to engage in a steamy make-out session with one of her _students_.

"Headmaster I—"

But Erwin held up a hand to silence her, sighing as he rubbed his forehead. "My nephew is not easy to get along with," he told her, "he's abrasive, rude, and has a natural self-appointed sense of authority."

"I didn't know he was your nephew," she admitted, not that it mattered.

He smiled, his bright blue eyes shining at her. "Do you like him, Miss Ral?"

Petra blinked. Levi had asked her the same thing. Erwin noticed her discomfort so he stepped forward, perching himself on the corner of her desk, hoping his casual stance would ease her tension.

"I've been a terrible guardian to him. When he came to live with me after my sister and her husband were killed, I failed to see how fragile he was. I had a duty to one boy, but because I couldn't see the mask he wore, I kept my attention on this academy, on the benefit of these children."

She stared ahead, shifting uncomfortably. "Why are you telling me all of this, sir?"

Erwin ran a hand through his shining blonde hair and sighed. "Because he changed when he met you."

"M-me?"

"I thought he had given up on the world," he replied softly, "but I think he's finally found some good."

Petra placed a hand on her own cheek, trying to digest the conversation. How could a headmaster think such a relationship was acceptable? But then she looked at him, her boss, the man who had the final say in her future, and she saw not the strong leader of the city's most prestigious academy, but a man who had failed his family. He wasn't speaking to her as an employer, but as Levi's father figure.

"I don't want him to be lonely anymore," she whispered. Lies wouldn't get her anywhere.

Erwin nodded, satisfied. "You needn't worry, Miss Ral. You will have a full recommendation from me for any position you apply for. Please know that."

She blinked, snapping her attention to him. "I beg your pardon?"

"You are an excellent teacher. It would be a shame for the world not to have you."

Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes as she sputtered her thanks, trying desperately to keep her composure. He laughed and before he left, he patted his neck with two fingers, giving her a knowing smile. She stared at the doorway in confusion, feeling her own neck absently before remembering Levi's mouth against her pulse. With a small cry, she reached for her purse, digging inside for her compact. Flipping open the mirror, she searched for it and sure enough, a big, dark, and angry bruise was forming underneath her skin. She touched it, flinching. It hurt.

Damn him.

The next day, Levi took note of the cute floral silk scarf Petra had tied fashionably around her neck and he soaked in his own pride. While the rest of the class might have thought she was simply trendy and up to par with youth culture, he knew what she was hiding. The way she narrowed her eyes playfully when she caught him staring confirmed it.

He knew his uncle had spoken to her, and he knew that her career was safe, as he had told her it would be. He had made arrangements with Erwin early on to be sure that Miss Petra Ral got whatever it was that she wanted.

Before they were to begin their lessons, she held a stack of papers, their tests, and walked up and down the aisles of desks, hand delivering each one. She slipped Levi's onto his desk, being sure to give his upper arm a small, subtle stroke as she passed him.

Levi looked down at the test, a perfect mark written in red ink in the top corner. He flipped through it, reading her notes, entertained by her praise, then cocked his head slightly when he came to the end of his essay.

_See note on back_.

It wasn't in reference to anything else so with a curious expression, he flipped the packet over.

_Well written and thought out essay. I particularly enjoyed your comparison to the titans in the novel and the large corporations of today with their negative impact on society. Great connection!_

Then, at the bottom corner, in an inconspicuous black ink, was another note.

_I like action films and fondue restaurants_.

He looked up, catching her eye and she smiled at him. It was soft and subtle, but warm and inviting all the same. He didn't return the expression, but looked back to her note, fingering the indentations the letters left behind and already he didn't feel so alone.

**xxxx**

**Author's Note: **I had a _lot_ of fun with teenage!Levi. :3 Thank you for reading; please let me know what you think!


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